Tillerson says missile strikes carry a message for others

WASHINGTON / AP

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says the US missile strikes against a Syrian air base in retaliation for a chemical weapon attack carries a message for any nation operating outside of international norms. He didn’t specify North Korea, but the context was clear enough.
“If you violate international agreements, if you fail to live up to commitments, if you become a threat to others, at some point a response is likely to be undertaken,” Tillerson told ABC’s “This Week.” There was little doubt the missile strikes would be seen in Pyongyang as a message. The North has long claimed that the US is preparing some kind of assault against it and justifies its nuclear weapons as defensive in nature.
U.S. Navy ships are a common presence in the Korean Peninsula region and serve in part as a show of force. On Saturday night, the Pentagon said a Navy carrier strike group was moving toward the western Pacific Ocean to provide more of a physical presence in the region. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, described the decision to send the carrier group as “prudent.” He said Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping had agreed that North Korea’s pattern of “provocative behavior” was unacceptable and the U.S. was acting accordingly.
“This is a rogue regime that is now a nuclear-capable regime. …So the president has asked us to be prepared to give him a full range of options to remove that threat to the American people and our allies and partners in that region,” McMaster said on “Fox News Sunday.” North Korea has pledged to bolster its defenses to protect against airstrikes. The North called the U.S. action in Syria “absolutely unpardonable” and said it proves that its nuclear weapons are justified to protect the country against Washington’s “evermore reckless moves for a war.”
The comments were made by a Foreign Ministry official and carried by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency on Sunday. The report did not name the official, which is common in KCNA reports.